LITERARY NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2004, 21 July 1892, Page 45

LITERARY NOTES.

A scries of papers in which eminent novelists will tell how they came to write their most popular book, has been arranged for by the editors of the Idler. Mr Clark Russell will feive the history of the " Wreck of the Grosvcnor," and among those who have promised to contribute are Mr Besant, Mr James Payne, Mr Bret Harte, Mr Kipling, Mr J. M. Barrie, and Mr Grant Allen.

Mr John H. Ingram writes to the Athenreum to contradict the statement made by Mrs Ritchie (nee Thackeray), in Harper's Monthly to the effect that Elizabeth Barrett Browning, the poetess, could read Homer in the original at eight year 3of age. He says that he has shown conclusively in his " Life of Mrs Browning" that this is nothing but legend. Her own words prove that she only knew Homer through Pope's translation up till her eleventh year.

The following were the most popular books of April: — " The Fcresterp," by Lord Tennyson; "Marab," by Owen Meredith; "The Soul of LUith," by Marie Corelli ; "The Fig ;'-nd the Idler," by Alphonse Daudet; "Madame de Staol," by Albert Sorcl; "Rose and Ninette," by Alphonse Daudet ; "Russian Characteristics," byE. B. Lanin ; " TI-c- Three Fate?," by F. Marion 1 Crawford ; " }•' o uoirs oE Baron de Marbot,' translated by A. J. Butler; "A Modern Milkmaid," by the author of "Commonplace Sinners " ; " The Story of the Spanish Armada," by Professor Frouds ; " Recollections of a Happy Life," by Marianne North ; " Across the Plains," by R. L. Stevenson ; and " The Life and Letters of Joseph Severn," by William Sharp.

A few more leaves from the " Gaulois " Album : — " Open the doors to truth and falsehood," said Napoleon 111, "and it will certainly be a lie that will enter first." " Politeness is o&ly the art of choosing from among one's thoughts " (Madame de Stael). " Sleep would be a delightful thing if one might always choose one's own dreams " (Adolphe d'Houdetot), '• Difficultquestions are not solved by men, but by events " (Ph. Gerfaut). "To encourage a friend is to wind up the clock of his existence" (Gommerson). "The two following pearls from Bossuefc are especially noteworthy: " I had rather be deceived than live in eternal defiance, which is the child of cowardice and the mother of deceit." " The ambitious man never thinks of measuring himself for his coffin, which is the only just measure."

Many admirers of Dante Rossetti probably hesitated to buy the complete edition of his writings in two volumes, edited some years ago by Mr William Rossetti, because they already possessed the original poetry some of it twice over — in the volumes of " Poems " and " Ballads and Sonnets." All such" will feel grateful to Messrs Ellis and Elvej for their new and cheaper edition of "Dante and His Circle," just published. It is ditticult, if not impossible, to come by the book in either of its two original forms. It was brought out as " The Early Italian Poets " in 1851 by Messrs Smith and Elder ; Mr Ruskin, as Mr William Rossetti tells us, coming forward with his usual liberality to advance or guarantee the requisite funds. It was afterwards re-arranged and re-issued as " Dante and His Circle "in 1874 ; the object, of the re-arrangement and re-naming being, the author explained, to make more evident at a first glance its important relation to Dante. The book is of equal interest for the student of early Italian poetry and for the student of Rossetti's own poetic genius.

Many years ago, when the " Recreations of a Country Parson" appeared in Fraser's Magazine, now defunct, the paper 3 attracted much attention. They were regarded as light and airy, rather than profound, and, in fact, they were esteemed to have been written as " Recreations " ought to be. That happened 33 years back, when the author was about the same number of years old, and the anonymity, fairly preserved for a time under the initials " A.K.H.8.," was presently broken down when the reading public became aware that the sketches were by Dr Boyd, of St. Andrews. When afterwards published in book shape they enjoyed a large circulation, and in aooord with the tendency of the age they are now issued in a cheap form by Messrs Longmans, Green and Co., London. The new edition, of which the first serie3 only has appeared, extends to nearly 100 pages, and contains nine chapters from " Concerning the Country Parson's Life" to "Hurry and Leisure." It appropriately winds up with the Scotch minister's practical application, and the promise to send out more of the same good sort, a promise happily fulfilled.

A marble tablet has recently been placed on the house in which Coleridge lived, while a student at Gottinggen, during the summer of 1799. This is the first compliment of the kind that has been paid to an English author in Germany.